In an article in The Times last week, Michael Gove MP labelled anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and called upon the British government to move the UK embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and said the Queen could open it on her first official visit.
Mr Gove labelled anti-Zionism as “antisemitism, impure and simple.”
“It is the latest recrudescence of the age-old demand that the Jew can only live on terms set by others. Once Jews had to live in the ghetto, now they cannot live in their historic home.”
“So what do they do?” he asked. “Keep the prejudices, of course, and try to get rid of the fact. Try to undermine, delegitimise and reduce support for Israel. Make it the only country in the world whose right to exist is called continually into question. Make the belief in that state’s survival, Zionism, a dirty word.”
“Denounce, as the NUS president has, a British university for being a ‘Zionist outpost’. And instead call organisations pledged to eliminate Israel such as Hezbollah and Hamas ‘friends’, as Jeremy Corbyn has.”
To combat this “anti-Semitic, anti-Zionism”, Mr Gove said: “We should show we’re not going to be intimidated by those who want to treat Israel as a second-class state, we’re not going to indulge the antisemitic impulse to apply the double standard.”
“Israel is the only state where we don’t locate our embassy in the nation’s capital and the only ally the Foreign Office has refused to let the Queen visit,” he continued, adding “So let’s celebrate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration by moving our embassy to Jerusalem next year and inviting Her Majesty to open it. What are we afraid of?”
